Roman Catholic clergy carry palm branches as they circle the aedicule at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City on Palm Sunday, April 10, 2022. Ahmad Gharabli/ AFP
"After two years of COVID, of restrictions, of closed churches, today we are in a normal atmosphere. We have a lot of pilgrims, a lot of local Christians. We are very happy. For us, it's a kind of resurrection," the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, told Reuters. "Normally, where I am, we would have had seven to 10 groups a day, and now we're averaging two," he said.About 400,000 visitors entered Israel in 2021, a sharp decline from a record high 4.55 million visitors in 2019 who contributed $7.2 billion to Israel's economy.
"I never believed I would visit the holy land," said Francisca Teresinha de Jesus Fernandes Farias, 85, from Brazil.